People came in, attended their class or worship service, and then immediately left.“ There wasn’ t interaction,” Chisum says.“ There was a lack of community because of our facility layout.” Even basic hospitality had become difficult.“ There were no restrooms anywhere near the main entrance,” he says.“ People had to walk down two hallways to access the first set of restrooms.” Perhaps most importantly, the campus had become difficult for guests to navigate. That issue is something churches often fail to recognize because longtime members no longer notice it, Chisum says.“ Most of us could close our eyes and walk through our church buildings right to where we want to go,” he explains.“ But a guest needs to be ministered to and supported during their on-campus experience.” That realization became a major turning point.
Before the building came health Aside from COVID, there were several reasons Central didn’ t immediately jump into construction once Chisum arrived; deeper issues lay underneath the surface. So, as Chisum says, the church wasn’ t remotely ready.“ We were in no position to really be thinking about building anything at that time,” he says candidly.“ We were an unhealthy church. A good church, but an unhealthy situation.” Attendance had declined significantly over time. Leadership structures needed attention. Staffing needed restructuring. Ministry alignment was lacking. To tackle all these challenges, the church partnered with a churchcentric consultancy. Three major recommendations emerged: governance needed restructuring; staffing needed to evolve; and fixing the problem of the facility stifling ministry effectiveness. As guided, the church addressed the first two foundational problems before it moved forward with the last directive. Having led several such projects, Chisum knew one thing for sure: buildings rarely solve leadership problems.“ We needed vision before any building,” he explains.
Why Central stayed the course Uniquely, Central’ s story starts with church / design-builder conversations that began before Chisum even arrived. The church’ s administrative pastor had previously worked alongside Master’ s Plan president and founder Rodney James during James’ years in pastoral ministry. Still, Chisum easily could have changed direction after becoming lead pastor. Instead, he doubled down on the partnership.“ One of the things that’ s very interesting about Master’ s Plan is the fact that they’ re ministry people,” Chisum says.“ They understood us in ways that I would say some firms don’ t understand.” That distinction proved significant throughout the process.“ They understand how congregations make decisions,” he explains.“ They understand how churches operate.” Another major factor was Master’ s Plan’ s guaranteed maximum price structure. For Chisum— who had previously experienced projects exceeding projected budgets— that clarity became invaluable.“ I cannot tell you how big that is,” he says.“ I’ ve been on the other side of that conversation when you’ re having to tell your people,‘ Well, we thought it was going to cost this amount, but actually it’ s going to be more.’ That’ s not good.” Ultimately, the project finished roughly $ 158,000 under budget. More importantly, Chisum says, the transparent process created trust.“ We felt like Master’ s Plan was on our side in the construction process,” he explains.“ They became our advocate.”
It takes a( dream) team Once Central was finally ready to move forward, Chisum created a“ dream team” comprised of staff members, church leaders, and representatives from different generations and ministries across the congregation. Together, they considered how the resulting building could reflect and support who the church was— and was becoming— while also appealing to guests with a clear sense of hospitality.“ One of our desires as a church is unreasonable hospitality,” Chisum says.“ We’ re going above and beyond.” One of the biggest changes involved eliminating enormous amounts of underused classroom space.“ We had a lot of small-group space,” Chisum explains.“ Every different small group had their own room.” In fact, some classes had occupied the same rooms for decades:“ Their furniture. Their coffee. It was their space.” But much of that space surrounded the worship center— where connection and hospitality needed to happen most. Master’ s Plan helped Central rethink how ministry space could function more efficiently. Instead of single-purpose rooms used once per week, the church began designing for flexible, multi-use environments. The renovation gutted much of the space surrounding the worship center and replaced it with a dramatically expanded gathering area wrapping around the auditorium. Today, that area serves as the church’ s“ Central Hub.”“ It honestly feels like the life of our church is now in the lobby,” Chisum says. The space now supports everything from Sunday-morning fellowship to weekday preschool activity.“ We didn’ t lose small-group capacity,” he points out.“ We just learned how to use space differently.” Meanwhile, to foster better fellowship, Master’ s Plan helped Central consolidate confusing entrances into the worship center into a much clearer front-door experience. And the expanded lobby now immediately connects guests to gathering spaces, children’ s ministry, hospitality areas, coffee service, and more.“ It helped us make our building not about us, but about people who aren’ t here yet,” Chisum emphasizes.
Wayfinding became a major emphasis“ Signs aren’ t for your people,” Chisum says.“ They’ re for the guests.” As Chisum puts it, guests shouldn’ t feel like they’ re solving a puzzle when they arrive on campus.“ They need to know how to find the restroom,” he says.“ How to navigate the space. How to get out of here.” Good wayfinding, he argues, communicates care:“ You’ re telling them they matter.”
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